Sunday, June 17, 2007

Oh oh. The Mercedes W123 bug has bitten me quite unexpectedly, just when I thought I had it under some sort of control.

Last week I was on the Benzworld forum and noticed one of the members had a rare car for sale. There are plenty of gas 280e sedans around. A small minority of these have a 5 speed transmission. And of this small minority, an even smaller minority became AMG versions, tuned up in Germany with some performance parts like a hotter cam and limited slip differentials. And very few of these AMG versions came to North America.

One is for sale. I have put a deposit on it and hope to close the deal early in July.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

...to having the famous Silber Schnabel on the road.Well, notorious maybe. If it were in a German showroom, and IF I had the almost-never-seen-in-North-America headlight wipers, it would look like this photo.

The engine rebuild is done - a full upgrade to European specs. The body work is done; rust repairs, Euro bumpers and headlights, and (soon?) a right side mirror. Not much left, should be on the road by next week.I am somewhat besotted by the W123 Mercedes line of cars. If I could only find a 280te...

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Our intrepid leaders are meeting in Germany to discuss Climate Change and what to do about it. We should take this very seriously.

Intervening strongly in the industrialized western economy to prevent climate change is the most serious threat to the general welfare of the planet today.

I plan to practise saying that last sentence to AGW ecochondriacs, to see whether they are really listening. The careless ones will think I am agreeing with them.

Those who are paying attention will hear what I just said. If you want to threaten the general welfare of the planet, merely intervene strongly in the industrialized western economy in a way that furthers the objectives of the backers of the Kyoto Protocol.

A warmer planet is, on balance, a good thing, although no one will admit it. We have been there before, as recently as 70 years ago. We shouldn't be so quick to assert that we are causing this warming, nor can we expect the temperature to respond to whatever action we take. Nor should we take it for granted that individual weather station temperature data is actually reliable, nor that the published summary of these stations' data is in any way meaningful. This blog has spoken to each of these points.

So, a devastating solution is proposed that will do nothing to affect the problem it is aimed at, which isn't a problem at all even if it is really happening. Politicians and activists urge us to sacrifice our healthy economy, the engine of improving life for the entire population of the earth, and receive not one morsel of value in return.

Please, let us hear one politician, just one, stand up and remind everyone that CO2 is not pollution. Then let him (or her) say that regardless of how much money is spent, and how many jobs are lost, to reduce CO2 emissions, it won't make the slightest difference to the climate. Not a shred of difference, even if we ceased emitting CO2 altogether. Then let him challenge the IPCC, or Al Gore or David Suzuki, whomever, to prove him wrong.